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Tewksbury topples 2nd straight giant

Saturday, October, 01 By Hector Longo

TEWKSBURY — Last Saturday's matinee head-scratcher here at Doucette Field looks a bit more fathomable here yesterday.

For the second straight week, Tewksbury High had an Merrimack Valley Division 1 power in full back-pedal as the Redmen rolled Central Catholic,21-6.

"They're a good team. They run the ball tough," said Central coach Chuck Adamopoulos, whose club lost to the Redmen last in 2007. "Today they out-toughed us, they got after it today."

For the Redmen, it was a win for the little guy and for town pride, a fact that head coach Brian Aylward wasn't about to let his troops, who victimized defending champ Andover here last week, forget it.

"I'm proud of our kids," said Tewksbury coach Brian Aylward, who clearly played the underdog card with his troops in pregame. "Every single kid is from Tewksbury and we got it done today."

Also 2-2, Central's offense sputtered for the third time in four games, mustering a mere 42 yards after the intermission and 120 yards of offense in all. The Raiders also handcuffed themselves with three turnovers — two picks and a lost fumble.

"We're still dropping balls, and we didn't play well on offense at all," said Adamopoulos. "We had mistakes on offense and defense at poor times and we paid for it. We took a step back this week."

The Raiders grabbed a quick 6-0 lead midway through the first on Matt McDermott's 23-yard TD burst. That was simply all the offense the Raiders could summon.

Meanwhile, Tewksbury answered with a second-quarter TD and seemed to soften up Central's defense with 208 yards on 25 carries after the intermission.

The Redmen win continues to spin the MVC's two divisions into a web of intricacy.

Tewksbury gets a point apiece for its two wins, but is technically in second behind Lawrence, which is 1-2 with a two-point win over the Redmen.

Currently, four games into the season, all 10 Valley teams are now 3-1 or 2-2 overall, with nobody perfect and nobody sub-.500.

"We don't beat Central if we didn't go where we had been," added Aylward. "We're where we are, today and last week, because of our first two (losses)."

Central now heads to BC High, the No. 3 rated team in the state, on Friday night.